There Is A Fatal Flaw In Arsenal's Philosophy

The problem with having a philosophy is that, when it is clearly
not working, there comes a time when you have to recognise the
fatal flaw and for Arsène Wenger and Arsenal, that time is now.

We have been here before with Arsenal,
of course. When their trophy drought stretched to three years,
the club’s approach was questioned. The same happened after five
years and now, when we are approaching an eighth year without a
trophy, fingers are being pointed again.

The supporters who became accustomed to winning Premier League titles,
FA Cups and playing in the latter stages of the Champions League have now lost patience with the
lack of success and the annual departure of their best players.

That is why there were protests outside the Emirates following
Saturday’s defeat against
Swansea and why they will only become more regular
unless there is a fundamental change in the way Arsenal and
Wenger do business.

From a business sense, you have to admire Arsenal’s approach.
They are well run, they do not pay over the odds for players and
the club are clearly not prepared to risk their financial
well-being by attempting to compete with Chelsea, Manchester City and Manchester United in the transfer market.

But if Arsenal ever want to get back to the top tier of English
football, as a club capable of winning the title again, they have
to draw a line under their prudent philosophy and start spending
money on better players.

I do not know who holds the levers of power at Arsenal, but after
16 years as manager, I am sure that Wenger will be a powerful
figure within the club.

And after eight barren years, he has to persuade the senior
figures at the Emirates that Arsenal have to stop being a selling
club and go back to being what they were.

He is as culpable as anybody at the club, though. He has been at
Arsenal for so long that it is his club, his players and his
philosophy.

It was a tried-and-tested approach which enabled him to produce
some of the teams the Premier League has seen, with some of the
best players, but the major flaw in Arsenal’s philosophy has been
exposed since Roman Abramovich came along at Chelsea
in 2003 and blew everybody out of the water.

Abramovich changed English football forever and ensured that, to
be successful in the Premier League, clubs have to spend big
money.

United kept pace with Chelsea by doing that, City have come along
and done the same, but Arsenal have failed to move with the times
and that is why they have reached another December with little or
no hope of winning the league.

Arsenal are miles short of the top teams. Chelsea are having
their problems, but you look at their squad and realise that a
tweak here and there will make them a quality team again, yet you
cannot say that about Arsenal.

If they had genuine prospects, they would not have lost players
such as Robin van Persie.

Footballers basically want money first and then trophies, but Van
Persie obviously looked at the situation at Arsenal and decided
that he was not going to win anything with them, so he moved to
United instead.

It is no good having a chief executive in Ivan Gazidis saying
that Arsenal will be able to compete with any club in the world
within two years because the reality is that it will be too late
then.

If Arsenal fail to qualify for the Champions League, which is a
possibility, then none of the top players will want to sign for
them, so what is the point in saying they will compete in two
years’ time?

The problem for Wenger and Arsenal is that supporters are not
interested in being a well-run club who do not win anything.

If you offered them a badly run club who win trophies every year,
they would take that every time.

It is a paradox of Arsenal’s approach that being well run as a
business does not mean they are being well run from a football
perspective.

To succeed in football, you have to speculate to accumulate,
otherwise you fall away – and that is what Arsenal are in danger
of doing.

But if the fans’ protests grow and Arsène finds himself under
more pressure, will he start to ask himself whether he needs it?

He has built the club up and, by qualifying year after year for
the Champions League, has delivered success during the eight year
barren run.

But things seem to be going downhill and the only way to arrest
the slide is to accept the reality that you now have to spend to
compete.